In The Cradle Of Darkness
by L.Hawk
Summary: "The Darkness cradles them, acting as a temporary shield from Ivan's wrath." Warning: mentions of rape and abuse.
1. Chapter 1

The darkness cradles them, acting as a temporary shield from Ivan's wrath while Elizaveta kisses Ravis' tears away; tears over rough cold hands gripping tight enough to leave bruises on his arms, a rough tongue jammed down his throat so hard he wants to vomit and cold purple eyes with none of the tenderness one shows a lover but the cruel feral dominance one shows to prey; Tears shed because he's too afraid to look in the mirror, knowing that he'll see the same terror in his own eyes that he sees in Toris' green ones when Ivan gets through with him.

Toris is locked in solitary confinement for kissing Felix instead of Ivan, and since Ivan's personal brand of torture for Eduard is keeping him up late into the night copying paperwork, the bed that Ravis shares with his brothers is cold and empty, which forced him into Elizaveta's room. He likes being in her arms, because it's like what he imagines having a mother might feel like; It's warm in Elizaveta's bed, with Gilbert asleep with his head on her lap and Elizaveta holding Ravis, keeping away the nightmares about being dragged away from his brothers.

He feels sorry for Gilbert now that he's living with him, even if he still is scarred of his brother. He couldn't imagine being separated from his brothers, because even when Toris was living with Felix, he still had Eduard. Eduard, who would probably come looking from him, once he got done with his endless stacks of paperwork with Ivan breathing down his neck and collapsed exhaustedly into bed, only to bolt up with a start when he realized it was empty. Ravis feels guilty doing that to his brother, but it's so nice here that he can't bring himself to move.

It's like when Eduard used to hold him at night before he fell asleep; that was before Ivan began keeping him up so late he stumbled into bed with barely a mumbled, "head ööd," to a half asleep Ravis and Toris before he passed out. Once Ivan started working Eduard to the bone, Toris would hold Ravis before he fell asleep; his brothers never made fun of him for not being able to fall asleep alone. Toris was gone now though, locked away from everybody until went mad with loneliness, leaving Ravis to face an empty bed until he crawled into Elizaveta's arms because there is nowhere else to go and he's afraid to fall asleep alone and she is kind and understands and holds him while he cries himself to sleep.

A/N-LatviaXHungary is quickly becoming my OTP, but there is nothing out there on them, so yeah, I wrote this.


	2. Chapter 2

Elizaveta's lips gently kissed each bruise and cut on his pale back. Ravis couldn't stop the flow of tears that was rolling down his cheeks and dripping onto his bare thighs and onto the sheets as he sat petrified on the edge of her bed.

Ivan had beaten him for some long forgotten transgression, then left him lying there on the floor and he'd made his way to her room. She was one of the satellite states and lived in a different part of the house, but it wasn't so far that he hadn't immediately began to stumble toward it, thankful that Ivan hadn't done anything worse this time. When she saw the way he was hunched, she immediately stripped off his coat and gently peeled away the shirt underneath.

He was crying because she was being so gentle with him. There was nothing else she could do but try to kiss it better, since Eduard had the first aid kit and was trying to patch up Gilbert. He knew, though, that if she were to patch him up, she would be this gentle. Eduard, who was always the one to patch people up, because he was so good at avoiding beatings himself, was never rough with him, but had a sort of practiced efficiency to the way he worked, bred from his personality living too long under Ivan's roof. Ravis cried because nobody was ever this gentle with him, though his brothers tried to be, and he knew he didn't deserve it.

She saw the tears and moved forward, kissing them away. He looked at her with watery eyes. She was wearing her nightgown because she had excused herself from dinner early with a headache, to escape after dinner activities, which could be quite dangerous with Ivan, as the wounds on Ravis' back and the earlier wounds that Eduard was patching up on Gilbert's back testified to. She always avoided them if she could and Ivan was more lenient with her.

The nightgown hung loose on her semi-emaciated frame, and he blushed when he saw how soft and paradoxically smooth her breasts looked. She saw his blush and moved her lips down, laying them against his and gently kissed him, lingering for a long moment before she pulled back with a sad smile on her lips.

He froze for a second before he let out a long shaky breath. She ran her fingers through his hair, gently, careful not to pull too hard. He had leaned carefully back and gingerly lay his head on her shoulder. She leaned her head against his and the two of them stayed that way for some time, until Eduard came looking for Ravis, having seem the blood on the floor.

A/N-I don't know if I'll continue. I hadn't been planning to, but this just kind of hit me.


	3. Chapter 3

Ravis can't help but glance at Elizaveta's face frequently, feeling guilty about the now-red, soon-to-turn-purple bruises on her cheeks and around her eyes, juxtaposed next to the yellow bruises that are mostly healed. She smiles when she catches his eye, even if it doesn't reach her eyes, trying to convey the fact that she doesn't blame him, even if it was his fault she had those bruises, in the twitch of her lips. She doesn't catch his eye often though, because they don't want Ivan, who is sitting at the head of the table, to notice the fact that they keep sending glances at each other.

He couldn't tell that their knees were touching under the table, because they were sitting next to each other. He couldn't tell that they were holding hands under the table, even if it was awkward for Ravis because he had to pass his arm across his lap.

Ravis had first seen the bruises as he was setting the table for dinner a half an hour ago. He had looked up, and there she was standing in the doorway, Ivan just behind her, tightly gripping her shoulder. He stopped short and just stared at her, until Ivan smiled that creepy smile of his and told him to get back to setting the table. He'd been worried about her since she stormed off after he had come to the kitchen to help with dinner, and she had seen the bandages on his arm, which made her furious. He'd hoped she wouldn't do anything rash, but he knows her too well.

They can't speak during dinner, but he'll ask her later, make her tell him why she went to Russia in the first place, and why she thinks he's worth the confrontation, and she'll answer in that way of hers that he thinks is the most beautiful sound in the world, even if she is speaking Hungarian, which he barely understands.


	4. Chapter 4

It's freezing in Russia, and they're huddled together against the cold. The chores are finished for the day, and Ivan hasn't come back yet. It was too great a risk to start the heat up, because then Ivan would come back and find out and punish them, and it would be worse if they tried to light a fire in the unused grate. There are no blankets on the couch, and they can't go upstairs, because Ivan doesn't like it when they go upstairs during the day, except to clean.

She glances at the boy curled up next to her, and her heart can't help but break a little. There are bruises and cuts marring his porcelain skin, and he is too thin to be healthy, and there is an almost unnoticeable vibration, which she knows will turn into an unbridled tremor when Ivan comes back. She wishes they could be anywhere but here in constant fear of Ivan; maybe in the little cabin she keeps in the southern part of her own country, with its thick walls and warm blankets, and a grate where nobody could tell them not to light a fire.

She knows that when Ivan gets back, he'll chastise them for sitting down, but won't punish them if they suck up enough. Of course she also knows that Ravis will have a lapse in judgment and complain about how it's not fair that they can' sit down if all their chores are done. That is part of the reason she loves him so much, but it is also what's hurting him, and by extension her.

If they were in her cabin, they wouldn't have to worry. Ravis could be as mouthy as he wanted and she'd never lay a finger on him, except to love him. But they're not there; they are living in a house with a cruel master, and all they can do is huddle together while they have the chance.


	5. Chapter 5

Sometimes, Elizaveta cries because Ravis is so beautiful. Not handsome, but beautiful like the images of angels in church iconography, which are always rather effeminate, whether they're male or female, because they're supposed to be so innocent. Ravis reminds her of an angel, with his small body, round face and big eyes and light, feathery hair. He reminds her of an angel in other ways as well, because he is so innocent about everything and isn't cagey at all.

Ivan calls Ravis' openness insolence and punishes him for it, which only makes Elizaveta cry more. She thinks it's something else though. Insolence in her mind is bluntness, and Ravis isn't blunt. Roderich was blunt in the way he put things, but while Ravis always speaks the truth, the way he does it is so careless and easy that it couldn't possibly be blunt. It's like he doesn't even realize or care that the truth isn't the right thing to say, he just speaks the truth because it's the truth, plain and simple.

It's that innocence that makes Elizaveta cry, because everyone else in the house is cagey, like Eduard, Gilbert, and Natalia are, or at the very least wary, like Toris, and Katyusha are. Felix isn't, but he really is blunt, not like Ravis, and she thinks Ravis is beautiful because of that.

It makes her cry though because his innocence is what dooms him, and his beauty is a reflection of that. She doesn't know how to answer when Ravis asks her what's wrong, because she knows he'll never understand, and that's why she loves him, except that it also makes him a target, and she can't do anything about that, so she cries.


	6. Chapter 6

He's beating Toris again, and Eduard has had the good sense to leave the room, and Gilbert wasn't there to begin with, and Ravis steps forward, to do something incredibly brave and incredibly stupid, and she wraps her arms around him and scoops him up and stops him. He tries to push her arms away, and she pulls him closer. He gives up, she scoops him up and carries him off up the stairs while Ivan is still distracted.

Ravis turns to Elizabeta, when she sets him down on the floor next to her bed. He looks up at her balefully and asks "Why did you do that? I could have…"

"You couldn't have." She cuts him off quickly. She presses a kiss to his lips, and goes to move back, but he flings his arms around her neck and kisses her back, properly and hungrily.

They stop for breath, and he holds his face close to hers and says "Would…can we…do you want…" He trails off and blushes. Elizabeta knows what he wants and starts to strip both their clothes off in answer.

Later, when they're lying naked under the covers, he says, "I should have done it anyway." She lets the tears fall silently into his hair.


End file.
